SOCIAL MEDIA TACTICS 

Comparing Usage, Degree of Difficulty and Level of Effectiveness 

This chart looks at social marketing tactics from many perspectives: which social media tactics organizations use, how difficult the tactics are to implement and the effectiveness of these tactics. According to survey results, “fast and easy” trumps tactical effectiveness. 

Cross-tabulating response data across multiple questions in a survey can provide an interesting perspective on research findings. Here, we combine data from three questions about social marketing tactics: the level of effectiveness on achieving goals; the degree of difficulty in implementing each tactic; and the percentage of organizations using them.

What we found, more often than not, is that “fast and easy” trumps effectiveness when it comes to determining which social media tactics to implement. For example, the most effective tactic, blogger relations, is used by far fewer organizations than other less effective tactics. The reason? As a tactic, blogger relations has the highest degree of difficulty in terms of time, effort and expense.

This focus on “fast and easy” versus effectiveness is a problem far more prevalent among organizations not working from a strategic social marketing plan. Starting with a plan and a purpose for each outlet enables an organization to execute more tactics, more effectively.